Posts Tagged ‘Mitt Romney’

That’s the lesson to learn from Mitt Romney, who Jonathan Chait notices was endorsed by the National Review until the Democrats decided he made good policy ideas. Once Obama, Reid, and Pelosi adopted Romney’s health care plan, it was considered anathema and pretty much killed Romney’s chances of winning the Republican primary in 2012. Maybe that’s why the Republicans seem to be bereft of ideas. If they somehow persuade the Democrats to adopt them, they will be dirty. Or something.

There is apparently, a bit of concern among conservative evangelicals over Glenn Beck and his theology. This is no surprise. The only surprise to me is that it isn’t a bigger deal, though it may become one. Beck is opening himself up to a dangerous place. It’s almost as if he doesn’t realise how serious a threat Mormonism is taken to be among otherwise likeminded Christians.

I had the opportunity to ask a conservative protestant minister from Utah about the spirituality of Beck and his rally recently and the response was what I would have expected before getting a little confused by the underreported nature of the religiosity of it. That is, I got a very long rant about the craziness of Mormonism and its insidious evangelistic techniques. The pastor and his wife, who seem otherwise disposed to the conservative republican agenda and especially the low tax Tea Party talk (we had had a conversation about the “evils of Obamacare” and the tax code in Britain earlier) were not happy about Mormons using Scripture and the patois of evangelical Christianity in order to promote their own particular theology. Consider this tweet by Reihan Salaam:

Who else thinks Beck is more of a tent revivalist than a political pitchman, and that his ultimate goal is to win souls for the LDS Church?4:28 PM Aug 29th via Twitterrific

This will likely not end well for Beck. Or perhaps he is so savvy that he will know to change gears before it blows up in his face and people’s ministers start preaching against him from the pulpit. It might not make a dent in the size of his audience, but who knows.

Ironically, you know who might come to his defence in the end? Jim Wallis, who writes in an open letter to Beck:

I’ve been asked by people in the media if it matters that you are a Mormon. I unequivocally answer, no, it does not. We don’t want more anti-Mormon bigotry any more than we want the anti-Muslim bigotry now rising up across the country.

One interesting side note: In the conversation I had with the pastor from Utah, I asked him about Mitt Romney and if Glenn Beck might be making Romney more acceptable to conservative evangelicals. He said that he didn’t think that Romney would be a bad president and that him being a Mormon wouldn’t affect it either, but he sounded awfully guarded when discussing whether he would vote for him or not. “I suppose if he were running against a far left Democrat I would still vote for him.” Wow, there was nothing this guy said that suggested he would consider voting for any Democrat, but maybe Romney would do it. On the other hand, he certainly talked about Obama as if he were a far left Democrat, so maybe I’m being generous. No far left Democrat would ever have thought of Obama as one of them. He is merely a gateway for a far left agenda. Much like Beck is for Mormonism.